TTV TALKS: The Blinders on their debut album, politics and Tenement Trail

Published: Sep 29, 2018 By: Gavin McGonigle

DONCASTER pysch-punks The Blinders dropped their highly-anticipated debut album last week, and ahead of their appearance at Tenement Trail, we caught up with them for a chat.

“We’re itching for its release. It is a milestone for any band and it maybe hasn’t registered with us, the significance of it all but regardless, we’ve been sat on these songs for a long time now. We’re enormously proud of this body of work and hope people will take it to their hearts.”

The Blinders’ career has gathered serious pace from not only their riotous live shows but their stream of punk-fuelled singles, however their songwriting extends far beyond this.

“Certainly. There is a couple of song, mainly the Ballad of Winston Smith and Orbit which are a distinct shift in style, as in Rat in a Cage to a certain extent. Columbia is very much an album with a distinctive narrative and message, however, on certain songs we were able to really go left field from what we have previously done. Bringing strings into the equation was something that truly excited us. When you’re in the studio you’re suddenly armed with a multitude of new toys, it’d be daft not to utilise them. Nevertheless, we think they really hold their own and by no means compromise what we were trying to achieve.”

Not ones to shy away from the political forefront of music, The Blinders have found motivation in what some see as adversity.

“We’re from Doncaster, a mining town in the north of England. As with most northern towns, it suffers terribly from years of economic decline. We’re all aware that that has shaped us and has provided a specific political outlook on life. For us it’s very natural. We write about what we see and when you are seeing the continued efforts of governments to decimate communities through continued policies of austerity it is hard not to get angry. There are too many issues to discuss, obviously. I think the main overarching motivation is looking at the abuses of power and how power has been constructed within society to clearly benefit a distinct few while the rest are told they must just get by. We’ve been given a platform, you’re a fool not to use it.”

The Blinders are undoubtedly one of the UK’s most relentless touring bands, however throughout touring they have to be make a conscious effort to write.

“That’s one of the hardest parts of touring and it’s something we’re probably not very good at. We tend to write in solitude and then come together as a band, there is therefore not a lot of opportunity for moments of solitude when you’re on tour. We write extensively when we’re not on tour and have been this summer, collating near to a dozen songs which look and go past Columbia. I think comfort can be taken in the fact that when on tour we are still creating although we may not be exactly writing.”

One upcoming stop on their tour is our very own Tenement Trail, and the band are certainly looking forward to that one.